‘Reality training’ for Tri-Town USDA inspectors?

Thursday, June 26, 2014 - 6:43 am

To the Editor:

We have been using Tri-Town Packing for the 37 years they have been in business. It must have been a good reputation for quality that has producers from all over the northern half of New York coming to this business.

You will find inspected meat from Tri-Town Packing in northern farm markets as far south as Keene Valley.

We are trying to encourage farm-to-market sales and farm-to-schools and restaurants. That meat now comes from Tri-Town Packing or Willard’s in Heuvelton. Willard’s is limited in the quantity that they can do.

If a cow comes in to Tri-Town with a broken leg, is it humane for the cow be held for four days until the inspector says it is okay to put it out of it’s suffering? If a pig blinks after it is killed, should the slaughterhouse be written up? In my mind the inspectors doing this need reality training.

I am writing this while on a trip around the Baltic Sea and Tri-Town Packing deserves my support.